


Debts

by AParticularlyLargeBear



Category: Blaseball (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Loss, Ruby Tuesday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:35:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26488783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AParticularlyLargeBear/pseuds/AParticularlyLargeBear
Summary: On Season 7, Day 32, a payment comes due.Dunlaplooks on
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28





	Debts

She's in the bullpen when it happens.

The energies around the umpire coalesce and it's something fearsome, frightful. It swirls. Then fixates.

She reaches out a hand, as if that could bridge the gap, as if she could pluck them from danger.

Then a blinding explosion and

and Moody

when it fades

Moody is

no longer there

Scraps of paper flutter to the field and Dunlap is screaming and Famous is shouting, Nagomi flits through the floor, ceiling, floor again, Yazmin cries out.

The stadium seems to freeze. Water drips.

Tiger after Tiger stands stricken. 

A wailing, gnashing of teeth. Fish Summer has risen from the Talkers' dugout. Their fin dents the wall, leaving cracks.

Dunlap's throat finally gives out. She drops to her knees.

On the field, the... residue of what grasped Moody, since that previous game, suddenly darts out, enveloping one of the Moist Talkers. They stumble and stagger, and as they regain their feet, that purple flare clings to them, as it clings to Scorpler and Zion, as it clung to Moody

clung

it

clung

she realises the tense she's thinking of Moody and the howling rises back into her lungs, filling her chest, filling her everything

her captain

her _tome father_

a fluttering scrap flits its way through the air. Dunlap reaches out and grasps the fragment of... the fragment...

_two cups su_

_one teasp_

_add cin_

_half l_

she clutches it to her chest, clenches her eyes closed, tries not to weep.

and doesn't succeed

Somebody shouts. A minute later? An hour?

Dunlap's eyes reopen.

The umpire's gaze falls on another. The Moist Talker. The unforgiving flame catches hold and they too are _gone_.

Dunlap stares as the greedy void swirls around, tasting the air, and then rushes towards the bullpen

is it to be them?

shall this be—

Yazmin has risen, she rushes to the front of the pen, shouting, and Dunlap remembers that this is _her_ Moody, the Moody from the other place, that she just lost her only connection to that home—

the deer is engulfed

flung from her hooves

collapsing to

the

floor

the pitchers surround Yazmin as she twitches and groans, but alive, still alive. Dunlap reaches to touch her and hisses as the contact burns.

She ignores it. She ignores it as she wraps Yaz's arm around her shoulder and lifts her. she ignores it as she helps Yaz across to a seat. She ignores it as she settles Yaz down

nothing can hurt her more than the festering wound within

She looks back out to the field.

Scorpler slides into base in effortless fashion, stylish as always, even entrapped in the _instability_. They adjust their headphones, toss back a stinger

and

go up

in flames

She stands there stricken.

Scorpler

they'd

been so flippant about the jacket

treated it with such good humour, shrugged when asked where it had gone, simply laughing

_'I'm invincible.'_

They're gone

and Moody's gone

and

this can't be

okay

any

more

Her eyes don't leave Zion for the rest of the game.

it ends

the game ends

in a daze she walks across the field, to Fish, to Paula

there's no need for words

there are no words

they collapse into one another's arms and cry their agony to the waters.

at some stage, she makes it back into the dressing room. she falls into a seat. she lets the others cluster around Zion and Yazmin.

her injuries are superficial, they'll heal

much more than can be said for today

Dunlap looks at the forecast.

_Season 7, Day 33._

_Pitching for the Hades Tigers: Dunlap Figueroa_

_Weather: Solar Eclipse_

She touches the pocket where the scrap of recipe sits.

She'll keep the team safe. She'll keep everyone safe.

She'll... make Moody

proud


End file.
